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Soup or Stock From One Pound of Beef

A clear beef broth made by simmering minced beef in cold water with salt, seasonings, and optional roast onions or burnt sugar for color.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Soup or Stock From One Pound of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the broth

  1. Combine minced beef and cold water in a pot.

  2. Heat slowly until boiling, about 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Boil briskly for 1 to 2 minutes.

Strain and season

  1. Strain the liquid through a towel.

  2. Mix in salt and other seasonings.

  3. Add roast onions or burnt sugar for a darker color.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Releases meat flavor and protein that give the broth its savory body.
Cold water
Acts as the solvent that slowly draws flavor out of the beef.
Roast onions or burnt sugar
Adds browning and a darker color to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Heat slowly from cold water. Starting cold and heating gently lets proteins and fat rise to the surface where they can be skimmed, keeping the broth clear. Boiling hard too early breaks fat into the liquid and clouds it.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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